Donald Sinclair (hotel owner)

Donald Sinclair (10 July 1909–1981) was the owner of the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, which he had acquired after an extensive career in the Royal Navy. He was the inspiration for the character Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, owing to his allegedly stuffy, snobbish and eccentric treatment of his guests, which included John Cleese and other members of the Monty Python cast.

Wartime career

Sinclair was an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve, who was called up in September 1939.^[1] He was serving on the Armed merchantman HMS Salopian^[1] when she was sunk by the U-boat U-98 in the North Atlantic, 400 miles south of Cape Farewell, Greenland, on the morning of the 13 May 1941.^[2] He then joined the crew of the Landing Ship, Infantry HMS Karanja^[1]; she was sunk by German aircraft near Bougie, Algeria on 12 November 1942.^[3] From February 1943 until July 1945, he served on the escort carrier HMS Trumpeter. He left the navy in April 1946 with the rank of Lieutenant commander.^[1]

Sinclair-inspired satire

Several of the Fawlty Towers plot lines were partly based on real life events. The episode "The Builders" was inspired by an incident involving several builders who had come to rebuild Sinclair's garden wall. Sinclair witnessed them having a tea break; mistakenly believing they were deliberately slacking, he went into a fit of rage. Sinclair's general dislike of labourers was also briefly depicted in the pilot episode, "A Touch of Class", in which Basil insults O'Reilly over the phone.

Sinclair was also known for his mistreatment of foreigners as depicted in "Waldorf Salad", which was based upon Sinclair's reaction to the "clearly American" table manners of Terry Gilliam. The excuse of "we've had a bomb scare"—depicted in the series finale, "Basil the Rat"—was used by Sinclair when he placed Eric Idle's briefcase outside the hotel. Sinclair really did employ cheap labour (à la Manuel) in the form of foreigners, many of whom allegedly suffered abusive treatment under his employment.

Accuracy

Opinions are divided on how closely Sinclair resembled Basil Fawlty. Former staff and visitors have remembered actual events there that were allegedly as ludicrous as those depicted in the programmes.^[4][5] However, Sinclair's family are adamant that Fawlty was an inaccurate caricature of Sinclair.^[6] On the other hand, the publication of Michael Palin's diaries supported John Cleese's assessment of Sinclair - and of Sinclair's wife Beatrice as well.^[7]

Cleese, who played Basil Fawlty, again played an eccentric hotel casino owner in the 2001 film Rat Race, and in this later piece, the character was even named Donald Sinclair.

Sinclair died in England in 1981; he was survived by his two daughters and his wife. His wife died in September 2010.^[8]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) Officers 1939-1945 "Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) Officers 1939-1945". www.unithistories.com. 27 September 2011. http://www.unithistories.com/officers/RNR_officersS.html#Sinclair_DW Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) Officers 1939-1945. 
2. ^ "HMS Salopian (F 94)". uboat.net. 27 September 2011. http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3330.html. 
3. ^ "HMS Karanja (F 128)". uboat.net. 27 September 2011. http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/13446.html. 
4. ^ Richard Saville (2002-05-17). "Fawlty hotelier was bonkers, says waitress". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1394580/Fawlty-hotelier-was-bonkers-says-waitress.html. Retrieved 2008-08-28. 
5. ^ Yvonne Swann (2008-07-01). "Paula Wilcox's heaven and hell". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hubs/heavenandhell/2228722/Paula-Wilcox%27s-heaven-and-hell.html. Retrieved 2008-07-01. 
6. ^ Richard Saville (2002-05-10). "My husband was not like Basil". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1393839/My-husband-was-not-like-Basil.html. Retrieved 2008-08-28. 
7. ^ Diaries 1969-1979 - The Python Years (published 2006) – In the entries for 11 and 12 May 1970, it is recounted that Sinclair saw the Pythons as a "colossal inconvenience", and when Michael Palin and Graham Chapman decided to leave after one night, Beatrice Sinclair gave them a bill for two weeks.
8. ^ "Beatrice Sinclair (Obituary)". The Daily Telegraph. 2010-09-16. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/8007529/Beatrice-Sinclair.html. Retrieved 2010-09-16. 

Persondata
Name	Sinclair, Donald
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1909-07-10
Place of birth
Date of death	1981
Place of death

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This Fawlty Towers-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: 1909 births 1981 deaths People from Torquay BBC Television stubs BBC television programme stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую Fred D. Fagg, Jr. Geez Magazine Look at other dictionaries: Donald Sinclair — may refer to: Donald Sinclair (hotel owner), owner of the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay and the inspiration for the character Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers Donald Sinclair (veterinary surgeon), inspiration for the character Siegfried Farnon in… …   Wikipedia Sinclair (surname) — Sinclair Family name Revela Domino opera tua Meaning Taken from the hermit saint; this derivation of the St. Claire surname …   Wikipedia Fawlty Towers (hotel) — Fawlty Towers is the name of the fictional hotel in which the UK television series Fawlty Towers is set, and which gives the TV series its name. The hotel s exterior location is represented by the now demolished Wooburn Grange Country Club in… …   Wikipedia Rat Race — Infobox Film name = Rat Race caption = director =Jerry Zucker producer =Jerry Zucker writer =Andy Breckman starring =John Cleese Rowan Atkinson Cuba Gooding, Jr. Whoopi Goldberg Jon Lovitz Seth Green distributor =Paramount Fireworks Entertainment …   Wikipedia Fawlty Towers — Not to be confused with Fáilte Towers. Fawlty Towers Series title card. The Fawlty Towers sign changed in every episode except one. Format Comedy …   Wikipedia John Cleese — Cleese in 2008 Birth name John Marwood Cleese Born 27 October 1939 (1939 10 27) …   Wikipedia List of Minder episodes — This episode list gives brief descriptions and some other details of the episodes of the ITV television series Minder. Series 1 – 7 focus on Arthur Daley, a middle aged car salesman and self described entrepreneur. He is assisted/minded by Terry… …   Wikipedia List of Tales of the Unexpected episodes — This is a list of episodes of the British drama series, Tales of the Unexpected. Contents 1 Series one 2 Series two 3 Series three 4 Series four …   Wikipedia Basil Fawlty — Infobox character colour = grey colour text = black name = Basil Fawlty series = Fawlty Towers caption = Basil Fawlty first = A Touch of Class last = Basil the Rat cause = End of Series creator = portrayer = John Cleese episode = All nickname =… …   Wikipedia List of people from Greenwich, Connecticut — People who have lived in or been associated with Greenwich, Connecticut now or in the past and are well known beyond the town.Listed category, based on area in which person is best known (in alphabetical order within each category):Actors,… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”